An invasive fish that plagues Illinois rivers could soon start being stocked in food banks.

By catching, processing, and storing Asian carp… state officials are looking to solve a couple problems at once. They want to close a hunger gap, and to rid rivers of the fish.

The state’s Department of Natural Resources is still working out the kinks … but plans to have the mild whitefish in food banks by the end of summer.

Todd Main with the D-N-R says there’s more than two hundred million pounds of Asian carp swimming in the state’s rivers.

He says it’s an untapped resource that can be part of a healthy diet.

Main says while the carp are a problem … so is a lack of protein in low income people’s diets.

“When we think of carp, we think of the rough bottom feeders that we all know. The difference with asian carp is that they feed at the top of the water column and they’re much cleaner tasting fish and becomes a very nice white fish.”

Main vouches for the fish’s flavor. But he admits convincing other people that Asian carp actually tastes good is the biggest barrier.